


(Whatever You Do) Don't Touch Him

by Trammel



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (No Wanda or Pietro), Anxiety, BAMF Bruce Banner, But I don't hate Steve, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Nightmares, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve-Friendly, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 15:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16976991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trammel/pseuds/Trammel
Summary: "Stop! Just stop!" Bruce was yelling. Yelling! His Bruce.Bruce stepped in front of Steve, putting himself between Steve and Tony, standing right in Rogers' space, shielding Tony from him. Tony saw his boyfriend's eyes flash green."Don't touch him!" Bruce snarled.





	(Whatever You Do) Don't Touch Him

**Author's Note:**

> For the square on my Tony Stark Bingo card that is a photo of Bruce and Tony from Ultron. Square A2

It was like an eclipse of the world, a dark alien landscape, and the team was strewn around it. The team was…dead. They were all dead or dying.

And Tony was alive, staring down at them.

He leaned down to see Steve's ravaged face looking up at him, the Captain opening his eyes and fixing Tony with a pained glare.

"You could have saved us," Captain America wheezed out before breathing his final breath.

_no, no no! This couldn't be happening- it couldn't-_

"Tony," a gentle voice floated into his brain, lighting the darkness a bit. "Tony, wake up."

Tony jerked awake to see that he'd been sleeping on the couch in the corner of his lab. His papers were spread around on the floor near his feet and his scientist was sitting next to him. Tony grabbed fistfuls of Bruce's checked shirt and tried to speak. He realized he couldn't, as he was gasping for air.

The tightness in his chest, the gasping for air. God, not again. _Not again!_

Bruce's large hands came to rest gently on his arms and those warm eyes regarded him.

"You were dreaming. Just dreaming. It's ok. We're in the lab and everyone is safe."

Tony nodded through his gasps to show Bruce he understood.

"I'm so sorry, I went to get tea and Jarvis told me you'd fallen asleep, so I decided to let you rest. I was talking to Helen."

"You - you - they - " Tony gasped out, painfully pushing the words out. "Everyone dead - my fault - my-"

"No, no, Tony. It was a nightmare." Bruce carefully pulled Tony forward and Tony wrapped his arms around Bruce's waist, his head resting against Bruce's chest. "You need to breathe. Try to breathe, like we've practiced before, remember?"

Bruce had seem him like this a couple of times but never when the others were around. Tony saw that Jarvis had darkened the glass walls of the lab without being asked, so the rest of the team wouldn't see them. It was the middle of the night but that didn't mean anything.

He tried to listen to Bruce, to time his breathing, feeling the other man's warmth seep slowly into him as well. Tony started to remember where he was, what he had been doing before he fell asleep. After the Avengers returned victoriously to the tower with Loki's staff, he and Bruce had started working on Ultron.

But Bruce was fervently against using the scepter to activate the program. He had spent the last few hours trying to make his case with Tony. Tony knew Bruce was listening to him, not ignoring his concerns, but the thought of giving back the scepter without using its power took away all his breathe.

At some point Bruce had gone to make more tea and Tony had closed his eyes just for a moment…

"Oh…oh god. I'm so fucking scared. All the time."

At that, Bruce pulled Tony even closer.

"I know. I know. Me too. But you know I don't think this is the answer."

"How - how can you be against this?"

"I'm not against it. But I think it's not the right time. You said yourself that we're nowhere near an interface. We've been working all night but we're not there yet. We don't know what the stone could do. How it will interact with our technology."

"But- but we have to-"

"No," Bruce's voice was infinitely gentle, and his hand was rubbing soothing circles on Tony's back. "Not like this. Not because of a nightmare. You are right to be afraid but we have to do this right. We need more time. You know that trying to play God, jumping into things without thinking has never worked out for me."

He was speaking calmly, soothing. Tony just listened, tried to listen over the fear that was suffocating him.

"I think we should keep working on the program, but we shouldn't use the stone to activate it. You and I, our brains together, we'll make a better plan. We'll find another way. We will. Right now you just have to breathe. Just breathe for me. Come on."

Tony listened, and just concentrated on breathing, on the feeling of Bruce's gamma-fueled warmth around him, Bruce's hand softly rubbing his back.

"We can keep working on the interface. In the meantime we'll talk to Thor - Jarvis, can you ask Dr. Foster to get here a bit earlier tomorrow?"

"Of course, I'll send her a message."JARVIS replied.

Right, Tony had planned a 'we saved the world again' party for tomorrow night. Tonight? He didn't know anymore. Right now he could only think about breathing and listening to Bruce.

"Dr. Foster is really good at getting Thor to be rational. And she's been to Asgard. She understands their technology a lot more than we do. And she can advise us on how to talk to them."

"Them?" Tony moved a bit to look up at his scientist. His rock, the man who had seen him through so much.

"Listen, Thor's father is king of an entire world, a planet right?"

"Yeah. Yeah he is, from what they say." Tony seemed to be able to speak in complete sentences again.

"And he has allies. Other planets. Entire planets, Tony. We work to become their allies. Work together. A united front against…whatever's coming."

The idea was getting through Tony's panic. He actually thought about it.

"That's not - might not be a bad idea."

Bruce smiled slowly at him, warmth in his eyes.

"Well, you're not the only genius around here." Bruce pulled Tony back against him, holding on tightly.

Tony closed his eyes. He was so _tired._ Always planning. Always fighting. And it didn't seem to be enough. His chest hurt and his head was spinning.

After a few calm moments, they were interrupted by Cap's booming voice.

"Stark, what the hell are you doing? Why is the scepter here?"

Tony leapt out of Bruce's arms and (just a bit dizzily) walked to meet the Captain at the front of the lab, where the scepter was laid out on its stand, the stone's otherworldly blue drilling into Tony's brain, bringing back the images of his nightmare…

"We're working on something. Using the stone's power to fuel a program, it could be the answer to everything-" Tony started trying to explain.

"That figures. Messing with power you don't understand. Without telling anyone else? Doing what you want as always." Steve was getting angry, getting that 'what has Tony done now' tone to his voice.

"That's not-"

Rogers stalked forward till he was right in Tony's face. Tony tried to stand up straighter, though all he wanted to do was crawl up in a ball and cry. He almost couldn't hear Steve over Howard's voice that was suddenly in his head.

_You fuckup. You fuck everything up! This time it's gonna cost the entire world…._

Tony forced himself to breathe and looked Steve in the eye.

"It shouldn't be here. It should be in Thor's custody."

"No! We need it. You have no idea! You didn't see what was up there, Cap. You didn't see!" Tony poked Steve right in the chest. He might have been leaning toward Bruce's suggestion, but he wasn't gonna let Cap see him back down. No way.

 "This isn't the answer!" Rogers raised his voice, and Tony matched his volume. He noticed Bruce had followed him and was standing nearby.

"You didn't see what's coming! Coming for us all. You didn't see. Up there. They're not gonna stop and if we're the only thing standing in their way, we're gonna lose. Lose everything." Tony heard the pleading in his voice and wanted to puke.

"That doesn't mean you just make the decisions for all of us.  You always do this, just steamroll over everybody else. Never listen. You're gonna cause a catastrophe-" Rogers pushed Tony back, his large hand pressing at the reactor, and Tony couldn't help flinching backwards.

"You don't know! You haven't even been around, you're so obsessed with finding your old buddy. You've left everything in my hands and I'm trying to step up. I'm trying to p-protect everyone." He put all his strength into keeping his voice from wavering, but it wasn't working so well. He prayed to everything he didn't believe in that Cap wouldn't see his hands were shaking. 

Screw talking. Tony started to lift his arm, just about to call a gauntlet, and seriously shoot Rogers in his stupid face, when something unbelievable happened. Tony felt a gentle hand on his arm, pushing him back and to the side.

"Stop! Just stop!" Bruce was yelling. Yelling! His Bruce.

Bruce stepped in front of Steve, putting himself between Steve and Tony, standing right in Rogers' space, shielding Tony from him. Tony saw his boyfriend's eyes flash green.

"Don't touch him!" Bruce snarled.

Steve took a step back, looking unsure now, afraid of the Other Guy?

"Dr. Banner, you have to see how dangerous this is. It's just typical of Stark, too, ignoring dangers to do what he wants…"

"No. No! With all due respect, Shut. the. Fuck. Up. Steve." Bruce ordered, his voice rough and angry. Tony blinked at that. He wanted to speak up for himself, or, better yet, let his armor speak for him, right in Steve's face, but all his energy was currently concentrated on trying to stop his shaking.

And from what it seemed, Bruce didn't actually need his help right now. Bruce had this.

The small scientist was looking up at Rogers, who was towering over him, but Bruce wasn't giving an inch. No more green appeared, but the look in his eyes could kill. Tony tried to ignore the pain in his chest and listen to what Bruce was saying.

"You don't come in here and accuse him like this. All of you… if the rest of you would ever LISTEN to him, Tony is the one that is making the most effort here, all the time. He does everything for the team. His money, his time, his goddamn soul…. he gives everything for us, for the world, and you are all so fucking ready to condemn him for it."

"Bruce, I-" Steve started, but Bruce ignored him.

"Tony's right. We've been here, you haven't. You haven't seen the things Tony has. You haven't been working yourself to death to protect all of us. Protect the world. Tony has."

Rogers was actually speechless for a moment.

"You need to step the fuck back," Bruce said, his voice lower, even more threatening. "You need to lay off."

Rogers backed up even further. From the look in his eyes it did seem that something was getting through.

"It's not- I - I'm sorry, I'm not trying to… but Doctor Banner, Bruce, you know you can't mess with this power. We don't know what it is." Steve's voice was less certain now, though. Less 'I'm-Captain-America-and-I-know-everything'.

Yeah, well, Tony would bet Steve hadn't known exactly what dear old dad was injecting him with, but he still went ahead and did it.

"So we won't."

"Bruce," Tony warned. He couldn't let the scepter go. He couldn't. He moved to Bruce's side. "We can't!"

"We'll find another way, Tony." Bruce's hand reached out to hold onto Tony's arm, but he didn't turn from facing down Cap. "You know this is the right decision."

Tony didn't want to fuck up again. He didn't. But he had to trust Bruce. Bruce, who was facing down a supersoldier, twice his size, for him. All for him.

"Fine. Ok. Take it, then," Tony conceded. Steve turned to look at him. "Take it to Thor, he can guard it. The damn thing has been nothing but trouble for all of us." Tony conceded. He couldn't rule out the thought that the stone had messed with his mind, causing the nightmare. He needed to get some space from it, take a break.

"Take it, Steve," Bruce ordered. "Take and go cool off. Tony's been through enough from all of you."

"I- I'm sorry," Steve said, sounding more unsure now. Tony sure as hell hoped J was recording this.

"Just go." Bruce kept standing in front of Tony, protecting him. Tony felt that logically this should annoy him, but all he felt was grateful. Immensely grateful.

Steve turned and picked up the scepter, stand and all, and headed out of the lab. Tony managed to stay on his feet until Steve was gone, then let himself lean against Bruce.

"JARVIS, lock down. No one gets in." Bruce ordered.

"Of course, Dr. Banner."

"Tony," Bruce said gently. "You're shaking. Come back and sit down."

The walls were still dark, so nobody would see Tony falling apart. He let Bruce lead him back to the sofa and soon found himself lying on top of Bruce, with Bruce's arms around him, curled up in a blanket. He was still shaking but he could feel Bruce's gamma-fueled heat seeping into him.

"That was fucking awesome. S-Steve thought you were gonna Hulk out and squash him." Tony heard Bruce huff out a strange sound at that.

"I don't need the Other Guy to protect you. I can do it myself. You're the most important thing in my life."

Tony didn't know what to say to that. He couldn't blurt out that he felt exactly the same, it was too much right now.

"You're my knight in shining armor," he offered.

Bruce chuckled, keeping his hand running up and down Tony's back.

"That's something I've never been before."

"You are. You and the Other Guy. You both been that since we met. Since that first day." 

Tony lifted his head, moved up a bit and pressed his lips to Bruce's, tentative, searching. This thing between them was still somewhat new, unsure. But now it felt more real. More right. "God, you're - you're amazing."

"So are you," Bruce answered, kissing him back.

Tony rested his head back on Bruce's chest. He was still afraid, but he realized he wasn't alone. He had Bruce. They could be afraid together. Not alone.

He closed his eyes and held on tight.


End file.
